Burns are one of the most painful injuries an individual can suffer.
But a new electrical mat that reduces the likelihood of burns for patients undergoing electrosurgery has been recommended for use in the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS), Mehreen Khan reported at Bloomberg Businessweek.
In electrosurgery, a surgeon uses a heat-generating electrical device to burn or vaporize tissue in order to remove it and reduce and stop bleeding, instead of a scalpel.
The technology, known as the Mega Soft Patient Return Electrode, received positive guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, a body that advises the NHS on cost-effective medical treatments.
The majority of surgical procedures involve some electrosurgery, and the technique is often used for cutting fine vessels in the body, according to the U.K.-based National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
“As the tool used to cut the patient carries an electric current, the patient becomes part of an electric circuit, so the current needs to then flow from the patient and back to the monopolar electrosurgery generator to complete the electrical circuit,” the website reported.
Electrosurgery is used for many procedures, including dermatological, gynecological, cardiac, plastic, ocular, spine, ENT, maxillofacial, orthopedic, urological, neuro- and general surgery.
With the previous way of performing the surgery, the electric current departs from the patient’s body through a disposable single-use patient return electrode, attached directly to the patient’s skin via a “sticky surface.”
The Mega Soft Patient Return Electrode is instead incorporated into a padded layer on which the patient lies during surgery, completing the electrical circuit between the patient and the electrical source, and eliminating the need for electrode stickers to be placed on the skin, minimizing the potential for burns.
The electrode can also provide benefits to patients with fragile skin, Carole Longson, director of NICE’s Health Technology Evaluation Center, said in a statement today, as Khan mentioned in her story. “There are also possible benefits for theater staff in terms of convenience and reduced setting-up time,” Longson told Khan.
NICE, which first began to evaluate the technology in September, calculates the cost of the reusable mats at $3,000 each. “Positive guidance” from the London-based agency helps speed the adoption of new treatments across the 168 NHS hospital trusts in England.
Edited by
Braden Becker
